Newsletter no. 34 - November 1997
FEATURESCOMMONWEALTH FESTIVAL OF YOUTH SPORTBy Kevin Howett It was raining on the 15th October when I headed down to the final meeting of the Scottish Sports Council group that was co-ordinating the "Festival of Youth Sport". In fact it was snowing in the Cairngorms; not the most auspicious of starts for an International Rock Climbing Meet. Several months of frantic arrangements with invitations to 10 countries of the Commonwealth to send a representative (or two) to Scotland had still not resolved who was actually coming. The Indian delegation had accepted the invitation but their arrival dates and climbing details were still unknown on the starting day of the meet ! Perhaps the Queen's trip to India was holding things up on the diplomatic front ? Someone from Singapore was coming but still no details. I was hopeful that politics aside it would gel together on the day. The Youth Meet involving 8 different sports was in association with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting being held in Edinburgh that same week. This was a 'first' in the itinerary for these yearly Commonwealth meetings and it was hoped that they would become a regular occurrence in the future. On the 18th of October some of the climbers started arriving in Edinburgh. From Quebec, Canada came David Thomassin (18yrs) and Veronique Vigneault (16yrs) and Michael Rofe (19yrs) from Australia. Acting as 'Hosts' to the visitors were Scots climbers Lawrence Hughes (18yrs) from Perth, Fiona Gingell (16yrs) from Glenshee and Hannah Burrows-Smith (21yrs) from Grantown. Jamie Ogilvy (18yrs) from Bucks, England also joined the meet as a host. Jamie started climbing in Scotland before his family moved south and climbs about E4 (his father is an accomplished climber too). Hannah is probably one of Scotland's unsung heroines of climbing, leading E3 and grade VI winter, and also has a father whose achievements (on Scottish rock and ice) are considerable. Fiona is a relative beginner but who still leads about VS, whilst Lawrence is known as the Perth Roof Warrior and is responsible for many new routes in Scotland up to E4 (often done on-sight). Sunday 19th and we head north towards Dunkeld. The mist and cloud cleared, the autumn colours shone in the sun and the cameras were soon on power-drive. Upper Cave Crag was a rude introduction to 'gear' climbing for our visitors (most of whom had only ever climbed on bolt routes), but with local guru Lawrence bouncing with enthusiasm they soon got the idea. Corpse (E1), Gnome (E1) and Squirm (E1) were all completed with David having a good attempt at leading at E1 and Veronique quite happily seconding Squirm. David followed Lawrence on High Performance (E4) with some aerial antics before settling down to more amenable fair with Rat Catcher (E3). Michael led Coffin Corner (VS) in better style than I followed it ! By Monday morning the remainder of the contingent had arrived : Jay ("hi, I'm from New Zealand") Piggott (16yrs); Jinella Chua (21yrs) from Singapore; Malaysians Eric Low (17yrs) and Mohd Nur All Fes(16yrs), were accompanied by the Malaysian Federation's President Nor Ramlie Sulaiman. Even the Indian climbers Razi Zaheer (16yrs) and Davaka (17yrs) had made it through the beaurocracy, and despite their obvious jet lag, were keen to go cragging. A short day and a biting wind only allowed a visit to North Berwick Law Quarry, where they played on the bolts. Ironically, the biggest fall of the week was witnessed here with simultaneous 'flight' by leader Michael and belayer Veronique from a 6b bolted slab. After a reception in the evening they all motored north to Glenmore Lodge for the remainder of the week. With the cold temperatures it was vital to get the Malaysians and the Indians into the sun before they needed medical treatment so any attempt to climb the bigger cliffs had to be dropped in favour of south-facing crags. Creag Dubh was an obvious choice for the warmth but not particularly for experiencing the art of placing protection. However, with guidance from Graham Ettle, Andy Cunningham and Chris Forrest who were instructing for the meet, the more experienced did manage to climb the classics of King Bee (VS) and Inbred (HVS) whilst Jay led the odd VS with the very rude names. An early morning start the next day to Glen Nevis (again in search of 'sun rock') gave the visitors stunning views of the Glen at its most beautiful - frosted hard in the valley base, screes glistening in the early morning sun and the diverse colours of the Caledonian woods. After a visit to Steall falls while the rock warmed up they all sampled Polldubh's immaculate mica Schist. Even the Indians were surprised how warm it turned out. Storm (HVS) and Heatwave (HS) all saw ascents. The evenings at Glenmore Lodge were luxurious and convivial. Coaching sessions on physiotherapy and training for climbing were mixed with a 'World Rock' slide show, setting boulder problems at the in-house wall and enjoying the swimming pool and climbing videos. Tearing them all away from 'The Lodge' each morning was difficult but with the sun beckoning further south (it was raining at Glenmore) a choice was offered of gear climbing at Dunkeld's Polney Crag or sport climbing at the recently developed Weem Crags near Aberfeldy. It was heartening that most of them were now addicted to placing gear and opted for Polney. With more confidence (helped by the blazing sunshine) they all succeeded in leading routes. Veronique and Jinella both did Bollard Buttress Direct (HS) and seconded The End (VS), The Malaysian Eric, in particular was getting the hang of it all and led both The Groove (VS) and Kestrel Crack (VS) in fine style. His compatriot, 16 year old All Fes, was less certain but lived up to his nickname of 'Monkey' whilst seconding The Rut (VS). Razi and Davakar had a whale of a time on various routes, their dulcet tones ringing out across Polney all day, indeed as the temperature soared it was almost possible to think we were in India. At Weem the 'hard team' ticked many of the 6b and 6c sport routes, whilst David led the strenuous corner crack of The Last Temptation (E2 5c) with some of the protection in place as an incentive. Friday saw a visit to Alien Rock Indoor Climbing Wall in Edinburgh, where we could sample a bouldering competition set up by Rueben, Steve and Malcolm. An enthusiastic 2 hours session to complete 25 problems up to 6a standard (and another harder 10 if keen enough) wiped everyone out for the rest of the day. Prizes were donated by Mountain Man Supplies of Perth and Tiso with Jamie winning overall but Eric taking away first prize for the visitors. Jinella took second prize (1st female) and Veronique third prize. Mountain Man Supplies also put together excellent 'Goody Bags' donated to everyone as momentos of their trip to Scotland. On Saturday the visitors had the opportunity to meet the Heads of Government at the Commonwealth Conference. Jay met his Prime Minister, Mic lost his down at the billabong and the rest of us ran in the Torch Run For Peace. The Meet was wound up with a trip to the sandstone of Northumberland on Sunday. Excellent bouldering and many of them really getting the hang of leading with gear. David in particular put in a superb effort leading The Arches (HVS 5b) at Back Bowden Doors which is not an easy route to protect. Eric stormed up other routes here and 'Monkey' swarmed all over the roofs and walls with impudent ease. Jamie and Lawrence spent hours bouldering roof problems and Jinella experienced the more psychological side of climbing. The meet's success can be judged by the friendships that were forged and the genuine invitations to visit their home countries. Their enthusiasm for the intricacies of 'gear' climbing was obvious and they all left wanting more, unhappily many of them will not be able to climb this way at home as sport climbing is the norm, but perhaps their new found interest will ultimately affect the developments in thier countries in the future. David gave an interview for Radio Canada and Veronique became a Canadian TV star. The Scottish weather, Glenmore Lodge and Mountain Man Supplies all contributed to a fantastic weeks climbing and fun, but the last word must go to Razi with his cry of "OK, I jump!" when in distress. It soon became the battle cry of the meet. BOOTS ACROSS SCOTLANDby Gordon Pierson Some of you may have heard of Boots Across Scotland but it also seems that many people are unaware just what we are, so here in this article, we hope to set the record straight. Boots Across Scotland started in 1988 with an attempt to support, through a sponsored Munro Challenge, a hillgoer, Davy Pearson, who had been severely injured in a fall on the Etive Slabs.The idea of the event was to raise £20,000 to support Davy, the Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team who had rescued him and the Southern General Hospital who had looked after him. All the support was to be in the form of equipment. The challenge was to have parties of hillgoers on top of all 277 Munros on the same day, at the same time. It was the first time this had ever been attempted, although now it seems everyone is copying the idea. That first event sparked the imagination within hillgoers and over 2,000 people took part with only two hills failing to be climbed on a day of mixed, occasionally horrible weather. The event raised £76,000 instead of the hoped-for figure of £20,000. A real sense of shared purpose had been created and there was a willingness for this type of support to continue after the inaugural event. That is how " THE BOOTS ACROSS SCOTLAND FUND " came into being. We have clear terms of reference for the fund: 1. To offer support to injured hillgoers. 2. To support Mountain Rescue Teams. 3. To offer support to other areas, closely related to hillgoing issues. We are committed to re-organising the Munro challenge on a four yearly basis as our major fund-raising method. The 1992 event raised £40k and the 1996 one £44k. Our next planned event is earmarked to take place in the year 2000. We realise that critics see mass events on the hills as an anathema and not part of the hillgoing ethos. Many have copied the original event on a yearly basis and whilst not wishing to criticise others we would argue that our own event is hillgoing specific in terms of sponsorship focus and organised only every 4 years. We also do our best to spread participants evenly across the hills so that roughly only 8 people are on any one of the Munros at any one time. That explains our background and how we fundraise but we would like to explain just what we try in a practical sense to achieve through those three fine stated aims. After the initial event we formed a committee to continue and manage the aims and aspirations of those who had trusted us with their moneys. We discussed ways we hoped may benefit hillgoing and hillgoers and initiated efforts to try and promote a heightened awareness to the potential dangers on our hills. We continued to restate our main aim "to offer support to injured hillgoers" by helping with purchases of specialised equipment such as wheelchairs. Wherever a need arises we would like to think that we are approachable and keen to assist. Our support to Mountain rescue teams is considerable: over £35,000 in total split between teams. Early in our existence we started to discuss concerns we had that mountaineering accidents were happening all too often and we decided to try and help raise awareness of hillgoers. So began our travelling Winter Safety lecture series. November 97 will see us visiting 16 venues ( all publicised in this newsletter ) around the country and beyond, with a common sense message of safe approach to hillgoing. These talks are open and free to anyone interested, all funded by BOOTS as a contribution to mountain safety. We have, in the past, run Winter Skills courses and navigation courses at cost price to allow people to develop essential safety skills for the mountains as well as free travelling First Aid talks which can be arranged for small groups with the emphasis on hill situations. We accepted an invitation to be represented on the Scottish Mountain Safety Group and have recently accepted another to join the Safety and Training committee of the MCofS where we will try to be as active and positive as possible. We publish a Newsletter twice yearly and distribute it free of charge to a present mailing list of 2,750. If anyone would like to know more about "BOOTS" or receive our newsletter please contact our secretary: Gordon Pierson, 97 Braes View, Denny, FK6 5NG. Tel. 01324 823041.
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